Twine ball



July 17, 1928. 1,677,491

G. 1 RICE TWINE BALL Filed oct. 12, 1925 5 sheets-sheet 2 'Patented July l?, 1928.

GEORGE L. RICE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 INTERNATIONL` "2 ll.

COMPANY, A CORPORATION 0F NEW JERSEY.

TWIN E BALL.

Application led October 12, 1925. Serial No. 61,874.l

This invention relates nto twine balls of 'the kind used in grain binders for the harvesting and binding of sheaves of grain. More particularly it relates to a twine ball having a cover, which cover is designed to prevent collapse of the ball and to prevent snarling of the twine as the ball is unwound. A covered twine ball of this general kind is disclosed in applicants prior 'Patent No. 1,340,254 of May 18, 1920.

The purpose of covering the ball as described in applicants prior patent was to provide a ball of'twine containing the maximum amount of twine in a given space and of such formation that the ball would .resist lateral strains which tend to cause longitudinal bulging during handling and shipping and its collapse in the final stage 0f unwinding of the ball and in this manner preventing snarling and tangling.

The twine ball comprises a cylindrical' main body having` the well known universal form of winding, said body having iiat ends wound around the spindle of a unl- V versal winding machine, thecover therefor preferably being a continuation of the same strand of twine' but wound lengthwise around the ballin a direction at a slight angle to the longitudinal axial, hollow opening of the ball, which remains after removal of the ball from the spindle of the winding machine. In so covering the ball the flat end faces of the same are also covered, which is advantageous in preventing endwise bulging or expansion of the body of the ball when the balls are stacked or roughly handled in shipping the same. In the ball of the prior patent a circular uncovered area concentricv with the axial opening and oi greater area than the opening was left at each end of the finished ball, one uncovered area being larger than the other. Because of this construction, of necessity the angle between the runs of the strand of twine forming the cover and the longitudinal axis of the ball through its opening was relatively large.v

Because bf this relatively large angle the runs of the cover had a tendency to slough or slip ofi' the ball during handling.

The covered ball of the present invention is designed to overcome this tendency of sloughing by obtaining an' acute angle of the strandsforming the cover with respect to the axis of the ball.'

By providing ibas@ UDCOVGI'Q, areas of different sizes the'balls readily nest lwhen stacked end to end vfor shipping. lIn this manner a minimum -of cubical space is occupied. This nesting idea is also carried out equally advantageously .in the ball of the present invention. T e` cover strands are wound at the minimum angle with respect to the axis ofthe ball, consistent with retaining the nesting advantage..

As is well known 1n this art the twine ball has a .free inner end which lies loosely in the axial opening, said end being connected to the tying mechanism of the lgrain binder so that thetwine'is taken first from the center of the ball to unwind it from the opening outwardly. A frequent mistake made by farmers is to pull this free inner end of the strand out of the opening from the wrong end of the ball, whereupon the grain binder Vmust pull the twine out of the ball against the twist of the strand rather than with the twist, which error is another 'frequent cause of snarling and tangling of the twine. Such mistake obviously can be made with covered as well as with uncovered balls, and

in the covered ball of the' present invention it is an object so to arrange the cover that the proper end of the ball from which withp drawal of the twine shall take place will be indicated and in fact, regardless of such indication, to make incorrect withdrawal awkward and unnatural, by making the free inner end of the stra-nd 1n the opening diflicult of access from the wrong end of the ball, all to the end that-the twine will be properly removed and 'vexatious delays in the field due to'this common mistake will be. v

overcome.

Grain binders are provided with -a twinev supply carr which receives two or more balls of twine, saidballsbeing` placed properly in the can, one on top of the other and end to end, in such a manner that the topmost ball supplies the demand of the binder until it is exhausted and then the next ball automatically is started. 'This method of successively using the balls is accomplished by initially tying together the outer end of the top ball and the inner end of the ball next below it. The practice just described is prolific of further trouble, as in the case especially of uncovered/balls, two adjacent balls will become entangled before the'topmostball-is' completely consumed. This hapPePs can@ the unwndlng twine from the ms de ouh@ top ball rises and falls in the ball opening, in response to intermittent demands made upon it by the ain binder, and this loose strand often wor s its way down into the opening of the ball below, and there, due to loose .fibers in the twisted strand, it will pick up the strand of the lower ball and start pulling on it to unwind the lower ball before the up er ball is consumed.

nother object of the present invention is to overcome this diiiculty by so forming the cover that it is practically impossible for adjacent balls arran ed in the twine canof the grain binder to come entangled with each other.

Still another object is to provide an improved cover for such twine balls which will maintain its upright position after the unlversal winding of the ball has been removed.

All' of these advantageous objects are achieved briefly in the provision of a twine ball having'a cover whose runs are wound at the minimum acute angle produced by carrying the 'cover at the bottom end -of the ball to the edge of the axial opening of the ball, so that the strands extending from said edge to the diametrically opposite part of the edge of the cover at the upper end of the ball, which is spaced from the opening, shall closely approach parallelism with the vertical axis of the ball.

Referring now to the accompanying sheets of drawings, there is shown an illustrative embodiment of the invention, wherein like `characters of reference designate like parts throughout the views, and in these sheets of drawings,

Fig. 1 is a side view of two stacked balls as they would appear when arranged in the twine can of a grain binder, a portion of the cover of each ball being removed and the lower ball being partly in section to show the universal center winding and the axial openings;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the improved' twine ball illustrating the angle of wind of the strand formed into the cover;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view showin the cover after the universally wound bo y of the ball center and a portion of the cover have been unwound from the center of the ball;

Fig. 4 is a bottom end elevational view of the ball; and

Fig. 5 is a top end elevational view of the same ball.

The inner or body part winding of the ball illustrated vis of the well known type of universal winding common in this art, and, therefore, it will not be described in detail. Suffice it to say that this inner winding is close and compact and contains the maximum amount of twine for the space occupiedl As is well known the main winding is 4hasgbeen found that these projecting portions are the cause of part ofthe trouble resulting from snarling and collapsing. For the purpose of supporting these outer turns and also to prevent end deformation or longitudinal bulging of the ball due to lateral pressures resulting from rough handling and the like, thereis rovided an' outer open mesh or cover win ing 12, which is preferably an unbroken continuation of the strand formin cover being tig tly wound around the c lindrical body of the inner ball 10 an as shown, is preferably of open formation.

Upon removal of the finished ball from the spindle of the balling machine, there will be left in the ball, a central axial openin 13 of substantially uniform diameter an as shown in Figs. 1 and 5, there can be seen the free end 14 of the strand forming the start of the ball, said free end lying loosely in the hollow core from whence it may be pulled out from the proper end of the ball, as will later appear, to start unwinding of the ball, it being understood that the ball is unwound from the opening outwardly, so that the cover winding always remains to the last, as shown in FigQS. 'The end walls of the cylindrical body 10 are Hat, as at 13 (see Fig. 1), and the strands in the cover windingfit closely against these flat ends,

leaving, however, at the top of the ball a circular uncovered area-15. At the opposite or bottom end of the ball the cover extends to and is flush with the opening 13 (see Fig. 4). It should be noted that the turns forming the cover at the ends are oppositely disposed and run in a direction tangential to the opening of the ball.

In the ball of applicants previous patent, both ends embodied an uncovered area. In forming the cover it was', therefore, necessary to have the turns of twine form a relatively large angle with respect to the axis of the ball running longitudinally through the opening and, as a result, sloughing of the cover strands oli' the ball sometimes occurred. In the ball of the present invention it will be noted that the cover extends to the edge of the axial opening at the bottom end of the ball, which permits the turns of the cover to be wound more nearly in line with the axis of the ball. In other words, the angle shown in Fig. 2 between the axis A-B of the ball and a line C-D passing through a. turn of the cover is approximately 20 degrees or less, which is suilicient to Overom@ the the main winding 10, said no j sloughing od tendency of the cover strands. This cover winding, obviously, will exert a truss action permitting the ends of the cover to exert forces inwardly on the fiat ends of the ball to overcome any tendency of the said ends to bulge out longitudinally.

It will be observed that in forming the cover the twine builds up in the form of an annular thickened or beaded portion 16 at the top of the ball and a similar portion 17 at the bottom of the ball. The end which is provided with an uncovered area is the top end of the ball and no confusion over this vcan possibly arise, as the present ball has only one end which is partly uncovered, whereas in the ball of the prior patent mentioned both ends were provided with an uncovered area. Thus, that end of the present ball having an uncovered area clearly indicates to the user, once the fact is known, that it is the top side of the ball and that the free end 14 of the twine should be pulled out at that end. Also, quite obviously, because 'of the beaded portion 17 closely surrounding. the core at the bottom of the ball, it would be awkward and unnatural to withdraw the twine end 14 from that end of 'the ball.' Furthermore, in placing .these 1mproved balls end to end ina twine. can o f a grain binder or in shipplng containers, 1t is apparent thatadjacent balls can be made to nest together by telescopmg the bottom small end and bead 17 of an upper ball into the larger top bead 16 .of a lower ball. (See Fi 1.

Ign liig. 1 there is shown the manner of stacking and connecting these balls 1n a twine can, the can not being shown. The free `end 14 of the upper ball feeds out of the core as already stated.v The outer free end indicated at 18 in Figs. 1 and 4, which terminates the cover of the ball, is tied, as shown at 19, to the free end 14 of the lower ball, so it will be seen that when the npper ball is exhausted the lower one is immediately brought into play. v

In the vcase of uncovered balls, a serious which, of course, is very veXatious and objectionable. A very important. advantage gained by using the present ball is that this diiiiculty is completely overcome because of the bottom of the balls having their entire area, with the exception of the opening covered. Experience has shown that the end 14 as it is unwound will not play down int-o the opening of the lower ball because of the presence of the beaded or thickened portion 17, which acts like a stop and pre. vents this play down into the lower ball. Here it should be borne in. mind again that the twine strand is covered with pro- Iiecting free fiber ends and, because of the multiplied'strands forming the bead 17, these free fiber ends also are multiplied, thereby serving as abetter seal to prevent the end 14 `from going down into the core of the lower ball.

Another feature of the present ball is the ability of the cover to stand to the last, even with the entire inside of the ball removed, without collapsing and forming a snarl. In this connection attention is directed to Fig.

3. Here a part of the cover remains after most of the ball has been unwound. Of course, it must be remembered that the cylindrical twine can, not shown, helps the cover to support itself, as shown. In this figure it will be seen that a twisted clam shell elt'ectis produced with the sides of the clam or shell oppositely disposed and twisted from the hinge portion at the bottom in an outward and upward direction indicated generally at 20, where the cover is flush with the opening of the ball. Thus, as t-he cover unwinds, the lower turns from the hinge 20 successively support the upper strands forming the top side or ceiling of the vacated cover, thereby effectively preventing collapse of the cover top and insuring thatall of the twine of the cover will be run out without causing a tangle.

From the above descriptlon, it must now be appreciated that an improved covered ball has been provided, which achieves all of the ditliculty is encountered when coupling sev\ objects' sought, and possesses'many advaneral balls together inj'this fashion. The demand andpull of the grainbinder tying mechanism on the free end 14 is, of course, intermittent and this causes the said end at times to v'sag in the form of a bight, which plays up and down in the openingvof the ball. Frequently it plays down into the opening of the adjacent lower ball and because of the multitude of loose liber ends in the strand, the twine interengages and braids with similar loose fiber ends inthe free en'd 14 of the said lower ball, which results in startingunwinding of the lower ball before the upper one has been completely consumed. Under these conditions it takes but a moment to create a tangle,

ltages lwhich are desirable in View of the many'- practical difficulties heretofore'. en-

countered in twine balls now known in the art.

lVhat I claim is:

As an article of manufacture, 'a ball of twine havinga cylindrical body and flat ends and having a cylindrical axial opening therethrough, and having a cover wind- 'ing which at one end of the ball is spaced- 

